Europe’s night trains are back, and they finally make sense

The European sleeper network shrank through the 2000s as budget airlines undercut it and rolling stock aged past economic repair. Its return has been slower and less romantic than the coverage suggests, but the map in 2026 is meaningfully better than it was in 2016.

Austria's ÖBB Nightjet remains the backbone, with new-generation carriages offering single-berth mini cabins that solve the central problem of sleeper travel: sharing a compartment with strangers. Routes from Vienna and Zurich reach Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rome and Paris.

The economics still only work on specific city pairs — roughly 800 to 1,400 kilometres, where the train departs after dinner and arrives after breakfast, and where you save a hotel night. Below that range the day train wins; above it, the plane usually does.

Booking has improved. Through-ticketing across operators is patchy but no longer hopeless, and a handful of independent retailers now sell most of the network in one transaction. Reservations open between three and six months ahead, and the cheapest fares vanish within days on popular summer routes.

A practical note no brochure mentions: bring earplugs, a bottle of water and low expectations of the shower. What you get in exchange is arriving in the centre of a city at eight in the morning, having watched the Alps go past at sunset.